Turkey's Bahar Toksoy, Neriman Ozsoy and Neslihan Darnel celebrate an impressive win over Serbia in the opening match in Tokyo on Saturday

Tokyo, Japan, November 6, 2010 – Turkey got off to a brilliant start in the second round of the 2010 FIVB Women’s World Championship with a convincing 3-0 win (25-19, 25-16, 25-20) over an error-prone Serbia in Tokyo on Saturday.

World No. 22 Turkey shocked the 2006 World Championship bronze medalists and World No. 9 who had a day they would prefer to forget. The tournament’s top scorer, Neslihan Darnel, continued her good form for Turkey with 17 points while Serbia’s best was Natasa Krsmanovic with eight, illustrating the struggles they had.

The win sees Turkey, who started the second round with a 1:2 record from the first round against fellow second-round teams, move to 2:2 to keep alive their chances of recording their best ever World Championship finish. They finished 12th in their one and only appearance in 2006. Serbia, meanwhile, drop to 2:2.

FIVB Women's World Championship Japan 2010 official pageTwo good blocks by Bahar Toksoy on Brizitka Molnar helped Turkey to an early lead in the first set, and they built on this to go 12 points in front. It was Molnar who finally stopped the rot for Serbia with a decent spike and then Turkey started falling apart. Behind the serving of Maja Ognjenovic, Serbia – aided by a host of Turkish errors – closed the gap from 22-10 to 22-18, prompting Turkish coach Mehmet Bedestenlioglu to call two timeouts to settle his players down. Finally Turkey responded with a spike by Darnel, whose subsequent block and well-placed shot brought up set-point. It was the left arm of Darnel once again that landed the spike that finished off the set.

Serbia continued to struggle in the second set, while Turkey, led by Darnel and Eda Erdem, were starting to find a groove. Serbia coach Zoran Terzic hauled his players off the court at 5-10, but Darnel and Erdem continued to punish the Serbian defence and Turkey were 16-9 up at the second TTO. A good spike by Toksoy brought up set-point and an un-returned hit by Neriman Ozsoy put Turkey two sets up.

Terzic didn't wait long to use up his first timeout of the third set, bringing his players off after just five points, four of which had gone to Turkey, and he used his final timeout as his team fell 11-4 behind. At 13-7 Serbia started a small recovery, Jovana Vesovic landing a good spike and Natasa Krsmanovic making a great block on Darnel. They reduced the deficit to 15-12 but that was as close as it got. Turkey earned match-point after a tip-over by Naz Aydemir, and when Vesovic sent a spike long it was all over.